What lightning rules should a golf course or outdoor venue follow?

Start with the rule you can’t negotiate

The National Weather Service puts it simply: if you can hear thunder, you are close enough to be struck. Stop, get everyone to real shelter, and don’t restart until 30 minutes have passed since the last thunder. Every thunder clap during the wait restarts the count.

Most lightning policies fail in practice because the rule is fine and the execution is vague. Nobody is clearly in charge of calling it, nobody knows where the safe shelters are, and nobody is tracking the clock.

Fix the three weak points

1. Name the person who calls it. NWS says plans should designate a lightning monitor with the authority to enforce the plan. Pick someone with that authority and a backup, and write both names down. Don’t make it someone who is also running the event.

2. Count the time to get everyone to safety. NWS advises building the travel time into your decision. For a course, that means a warning issued early enough for players on the farthest holes to reach shelter, not one issued when the first strike is overhead. Time your own worst case on a cart and on foot, and write it down.

3. Name real shelters. NWS says dugouts, sheds, rain shelters and similar small structures are not safe. Substantial buildings are best, with a hard-topped metal vehicle with the windows closed as the fallback. Walk the property and list which buildings qualify. A halfway hut that feels like cover usually doesn’t.

What golf’s own rules and guidance add

The Rules of Golf. Rule 5.7 covers stopping play. A player who reasonably believes there is danger from lightning may stop and must report to the Committee as soon as possible. When the Committee suspends play immediately, such as for imminent danger, no one may hit another stroke until the Committee resumes play. The Rule sets no waiting period; the 30 minutes comes from safety guidance, not the Rules.

The National Weather Service golf toolkit. The NWS publishes a lightning toolkit written for golf facilities. It recommends a staged response as lightning gets closer, with staff alerted first and play suspended at the action stage. It names clubhouses, restrooms and maintenance buildings as preferred shelters, with signs marking them, and says golf carts are not lightning-safe vehicles. It also calls for a written plan and a designated weather watcher who monitors several sources. For restarts, it describes waiting 30 minutes with no detected lightning within a 6-mile radius, which assumes you have a way to detect strikes. Without detection, use the thunder-based rule above.

Who needs to be warned

Group	Planning point
Players on the course or range	They need a signal they can hear or see from anywhere you play.
Guests, spectators and staff	Same signal, plus an announcement that says where to go.
Pool, practice areas and parking	Easy to overlook; include them.
Whoever tracks the restart	One person owns the 30-minute clock for the whole site.

How the warning is delivered

Venues combine a way to see storms coming with a way to tell everyone: a detection service or on-site sensor for the first, and sirens, strobes, staff radios or app alerts for the second. We compare these approaches in our guide to lightning warning systems.

Questions to ask a provider

• Can alert distance and the 30-minute all-clear be set to match our written plan?
• Does the warning reach every hole, the range, the pool and the parking areas?
• Is every warning and all-clear logged for incident records?
• What happens when power or connectivity is lost?